As of 11 p.m. moderate rain was falling throughout the area, with some pockets of heavier downpours. After midnight the Tri-State will experience more significant downpours the entire area. The bull’s-eye for the heaviest rain and highest rain totals will be north and west of New York City.

As much as 4 inches of rain is possible in areas like northwestern New Jersey and western portions of the Hudson Valley before the storm moves out of the area around lunchtime on Friday.

“For places like the Saw Mill, Bronx River, which flood in relatively minor rain events, our current storm will put many of the flood-prone spots under water,” CBS 2’s Lonnie Quinn said.

Water was beginning to rise in communities like Bronxville and Mount Vernon, N.Y. on March 10, 2011. (Photo: CBS 2)

In Bronxville, run-off filled storm drains, pumping too much water in to the swollen Bronx River.

During the big flood four years ago, the river water was chest high in Bronxville’s business district, including Paxton Avenue and Tony Bosco’s Auto shop. Bosco showed CBS 2’s Dave Carlin the water line from 2007.

As the Bronx River once again rises, residents know sand bags can’t stop water that bubbles up from toilets, sinks and from under foundations.

It’s usually a bad sign when the parkway is closed down. Flooding in businesses and homes could follow.

“Let’s hope for the best. We want no loss, keep going and move on,” Bosco said.

At an auto body shop in Thornwood, “Jose” told 1010 WINS’ Kathleen Maloney he was hoping to avoid a repeat of Monday when the Saw Mill River came crashing through his door.

“We had about, I would say about seven inches,” he said. “Something like that, eight inches.”

The river runs along the border of his property so he and his sons did some maintenance on it this week. He said he was hoping to keep the river from overflowing.

“The plastic bag gets stuck over there and the water doesn’t run properly,” he said. “We went over there a few times, we brought the chainsaw.”

Along the Housatonic River in Connecticut, the town of Stevenson is still reeling from near record-setting flooding from earlier this week. In the last storm the Housatonic peaked at 21.6 feet, which is 10 feet over flood stage. While there will be major flooding associated with the current storm, the Housatonic should crest this time around at around 15.4.